The first time I saw Lewisia rediviva, common name of bitterroot, I was convinced I was hallucinating. I was working as a seasonal botanist in the shrub steppe, it was late May, and I was on the top ...

Members of Lewis and Clark's expedition first identified the bitterroot, or Lewisia rediviva, as the group crossed the West in the early 1800s.

As I was admiring a clump of our native yellow bells in my rock garden recently, I wondered how they came by their name. The common name is obvious, since the flowers are yellow and bell-shaped. But ...

APART from their exceptional beauty, lewisias have a remarkable history of high adventure. The plant, an American native, was discovered in the course of one of the greatest journeys of exploration ...